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The Council of the EU today published the negotiating directives for talks on an EU-US trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnerships (TTIP). Commenting, European Commissioner Karel de Gucht said:

"I'm delighted EU governments have chosen today to make the TTIP negotiating mandate public – something I've been encouraging them to do for a long time. It further underlines our commitment to transparency as we pursue the negotiations. And it allows everyone to see precisely how the EU wants this deal to work, so it contributes to economic growth and jobs' creation across Europe while keeping our commitment to maintain high level of protection for the environment, health, safety, consumers, data privacy, or any other public policy goal."

The European Commission is negotiating the agreement on the basis of negotiating directives issued by the Council in June 2013. It consults governments, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and civil society throughout the process. The talks started in July 2013 and seven rounds of negotiations have been completed so far.